So, we've been off for a bit while your homeboy Dario Cueto has been in jail for that pesky murder charge. But this Wednesday, September 7, we're back with Season 3 of Lucha Underground. This season is 40 episodes, the same length as Season 1, so settle in for some VIOLENCE.

Lucha Underground is broadcast on the El Rey Network. El Rey is a hilarious network that shows mostly grindhouse films, films about cars, kung fu films, and old Miami Vice reruns, along with a couple of terrible original series and Lucha Underground.

ON TV

If your cable provider has the El Rey Network, you can watch it there. You might want to double-check, even if you didn't have it before, as it has been picked up in a few new locations, including some DirectTV locations and Verizon FIOS.

Various places outside the US also show El Rey or Lucha Underground. If you live in Canada, Lucha Underground is broadcast on TLN, but I think they are a year behind. If you live in France, and get a channel called Action, it is available on that. Apparently its now airing in Indonesia? And I've heard talk of other various small providers in other countries. If you're outside the US, check your local listings.

ON THE INTERNET

NEW UPDATED 2/24/17: Season 2 and the first half of Season 3 are available on Amazon Video! Unknown at this time if Season 1 is coming there.

NEW UPDATED 2/24/17: Seasons 1 and 2 are coming to Netflix on March 15, 2017.

Lucha Underground is available on iTunes. You can buy it by the episode, including all old episodes, or buy a whole season at once, including a season pass for Season 3. Episodes usually go up the morning after they air.

Soccer-centric streaming service http://fubo.tv has El Rey and is only $9.99 a month. It also now has a bunch of stations in Spanish. Fubo offers a 24-hour trial subscription. Fubo offers an online-DVR capability, so you can set an episode to record and watch it later. I've found their service to be very stable and this is my recommendation over Sling if all you care about is getting El Rey/Lucha Underground.

You can stream El Rey along with a bunch of other stations on Sling.com. Sling offers a free 7-day trial subscription. Sling also lets you watch stuff later than it airs if you cannot catch it when it airs. Sling is $20 a month. This may be a good choice if you want a package with other channels. I've found Sling's service to be a little unstable but some people have reported that it is better now than when I was using it.

Why should I watch Lucha Underground?

Lucha Underground has incredible performers doing crazy poo poo in front of a hot crowd. There's lots of exciting high spots and violence. Despite having some bizarre characters, the stories are generally grounded, consistent, simple, and make emotional sense, sometimes over a very long story arc. It has some of the best and most recognizable "indie" wrestlers in the world today, some of the most athletic stars from Mexican wrestling promotions like AAA, and some guys you even may recognize if all you've ever watched is WWE.

Lucha Underground doesn't try to copy the WWE style and presentation like every other promotion. While WWE attempts to mimic the presentation of an actual sporting event like a boxing or MMA match, LU has acknowledged that it is a television show about a fictional wrestling promotion. Backstage segments are filmed in television or movie style, with multiple cameras and the idea that we are seeing this just as the omnipresent viewer and not because a cameraman is right up in the wrestlers' faces. Because of this, we get to see all the seedy backroom deals and/or murders without it being out of character. The production values are extremely high, with the matches shot by eight cameras at a time and expertly edited. Robert Rodriguez launched the El Rey Network and has been at multiple tapings, he clearly has a mandate for this to have a cinematic feel and it shows in the product.

Crowds are always going nuts, and wrestlers will do flippy poo poo off of high objects and they have the best ring announcer in the business.

I don't like foreign promotions because I don't understand what is going on.

You're in luck! Lucha Underground is broadcast with English commentary and the promos are either in English or subtitled.

Is this a gameday thread?

Yes, gameday away.

Can I post spoilers in this thread?

Please do not post spoilers about upcoming matches in Season 3, or match result spoilers from Season 4 when it starts taping, even if spoiler tagged -- take that to the spoiler thread. However, once Season 4 tapings start (likely in Fall of 2017), I don't mind if people talk in spoiler tags about casting spoilers such as people leaving or new people showing up.

Anything that has already aired on TV or been in an official trailer is fair game for discussion. So you can talk openly about how hyped you are for AR Fox, Paul London, and Sami Callihan.

I'm not a mod and have no power to enforce these rules, but hey, don't be a dick.

I'm behind, how can I catch up before the premiere?

They're pretty good about explaining storylines on the show and you can just jump right in and start watching if you're short on time. However:

iTunes is your best option if you actually want to marathon everything.

You can watch the short recap video with Striker posted at the top of this post.

I'm also going to do a recap of where things stand at the end of Season 2 in the next post.

StarkRavingMad fucked around with this message at Feb 24, 2017 around 20:13

Son of Havoc Wins "The Tournament 4 A Unique Opportunity"
BUT
Loses The Opportunity to Dr. Wagner Jr. (with Famous B and Beautiful Brenda)

Dario Cueto, the owner and promoter of Lucha Underground, had a four-way tournament for one of his Unique Opportunities, between The Mack (fat black dude who's dadbod should not be able to do the crazy flips he does), Cage (steroid machine), Texano (cowboy who dresses like he is in the Village People), and Son of Havoc (biker). The Mack defeated Cage via Cage slipping in beer while trying to stomp Mack's head through a cinderblock, Son of Havoc defeated Texano by smashing him into a bunch of broken glass, and then Son of Havoc beat Mack in a pretty standard match.

Dario offered Son of Havoc a choice: either $250,000 or a guaranteed main-event match at Ultima Lucha Tres. Havoc refused the money and went for the contract. Dario said that he could have it, but first Havoc would have to beat one more opponent, with that opponent getting the money instead if he won. The opponent was the debuting lucha legend, and Famous B's new client, Dr. Wagner Jr! Son of Havoc, already tired from wrestling two hard matches, was defeated, and Dr. Wagner Jr., Famous B, and Brenda celebrated with their suitcase full of cash.

WHERE DOES THIS LEAVE US? Well, Son of Havoc is probably pissed off at Famous B and Dr. Wagner, and maybe also at Dario Cueto. Famous B also has another enemy in his former client, the mini but mighty Mascarita Sagrada. Famous B snapped and beat Mascarita half to death with a shoe after Mascarita went on a losing streak. (Don't worry, Brenda retrieved the shoe.) So Mascarita may also be looking for revenge on Famous B.

So the Gift of the Gods Championship starts with 7 Ancient Aztec Medallions. Once all seven medallions have been won,* they are placed in the Gift of the Gods Belt to power it up.** The owner of the belt has the right to demand a Lucha Underground Championship match on one week's notice***, so that the owner and promoter has enough time to promote the match. If you hold the belt for too long, you may be required to defend it. Once the belt is cashed in, all the medallions are removed from it and the process starts over.

*Or given to you (the Big Ryck/Night Claw clause), or stolen (the Chavo Guerrero Jr/Cage clause).
** What matters is who physically places the medallion in the belt, not the rightful owner of it (again, the Chavo/Cage clause).
*** Unless the promoter has already booked the belt-holder to defend the belt that week (the Catrina/King Cuerno clause).

This seven-way match ended with Sexy Star facing off against Marty the Moth and his sister Mariposa, who have been her enemies all season after they kidnapped and tortured her during the off-season. Marty accidentally punched Mariposa in the face, giving Sexy Star the opening to defeat them and win the belt.

WHERE DOES THIS LEAVE US? The feud between Sexy Star and Marty/Mariposa is largely blown off at this point (although we can still expect them to be enemies). But with the Gift of the Gods belt, everyone will be gunning for Sexy Star to get that guaranteed championship shot.

Marty's accidental smashing of Mariposa may telegraph some strife between them. Marty also stole Killshot (former military sniper)'s dog tags, and has been taunting Killshot with them for awhile -- that feud probably carries over in the new season.

Daga has been being stalked by snake-lady Kobra Moon, who apparently wants some sexy time with him, and he is all "NOPE." She was out there again during this match, so that storyline probably still carries on.

Sinestro de la Muerte killed the two other Disciples of Death (all of whom were Mil Muertes and Catrina's servants, but we'll get to them later) and ate their hearts to gain power, but he still sucks. Will Mil and Catrina be pissed that a powered-up putty is still a putty?

Night Claw...will not be coming back this season.

Mil Muertes (w/ Catrina) defeated King Cuerno in a Deathmatch

Mil Muertes is a murder-golem and Catrina is his teleporting ghost(?)/witch(?)/incarnation of death(?) manager. Muertes has died once before, following a coffin match with Fenix, and Catrina resurrected him more powerful than ever. This season, he died again in a coffin match at the hands of MY BROTHER THE MONSTER MATANZA CUETO (who we will get to later). King Cuerno is a hunter, and he couldn't resist having a great trophy. Cuerno also had gotten sideways with Catrina at the start of the season when they tried to cut a bunch of sneaky backroom deals. Anyway, King Cuerno stole the coffin and put Mil Muertes' corpse up in his cabin in a cool glass case.

Catrina had also been put in a coffin during the match but she disappeared from it because, as previously stated, she is a teleporting ghost/witch/goddess/something. A little while later she appeared again and resurrected Mil Muertes into version 3 (with red eyes) and he smashed out of his case.

The resulting deathmatch here did not go well for Cuerno. He got thrown down the stairs, and after he dared to put his hands on Catrina, Mil smashed him through like four tables. Not at once. Like smashed him through a table, picked him up, carried him to another table, smashed him through that, repeat. And then Mil jumped off the top turnbuckle and caved in Cuerno's skull with a crowbar. Cuerno was stretchered out.

WHERE DOES THIS LEAVE US? Well, King Cuerno may want revenge, if he ever wakes up from the smashing he took. (It's no secret that he is out for at least most of this season with contract issues and two surgeries, so you can probably expect revenge to come later rather than sooner).

Aerostar is a time travelling spaceship, Drago is Aerostar's best buddy and a literal dragon, and Fenix is the incarnation of life. Jack Evans, Johnny Mundo, and PJ Black (collectively, the Worldwide Underground) are a bunch of air guitar playing jerks who really REALLY like kicking people in the balls.

The Worldwide Underground had the early advantage in this match through a lot of cheating, but were thwarted when returning daredevil Angelico, who had been out injured from an unspecified backstage attack, appeared and beat them with his crutch.

WHERE DOES THIS LEAVE US? Well, according to a recent video, there's no beef still between our new Trios champs and the Worldwide Underground, as Mundo is setting his sights on the Lucha Underground Championship. They are still mad at Angelico, although Mundo claims to have "taken care of that."

El Dragon Azteca Jr. v. Black Lotus Ended in a No Contest

Black Lotus came to the Temple because she believed Matanza (Dario Cueto's brother) killed her parents. She was eventually captured and put in a cell in the basement near Matanza. Dragon Azteca Sr. came to rescue her. However, while she was in captivity, Dario had convinced her that Dragon Azteca was the one who killed her parents, not Matanza. Black Lotus killed Dragon Azteca, and started serving as Dario's bodyguard.

Dragon Azteca Jr. took the mask of his teacher, and came to the Temple. He assumed that Mantanza had been the one to kill the original Dragon Azteca. When Dario told him that it was actually Black Lotus, the two were set to fight and settle this blood feud.

HOWEVER, skeletal arm-breaking ninja Pentagon Jr., now reborn as Pentagon Dark, decided he wasn't going to wait around for his title match, so he came into the ring and broke both their arms, because gently caress them both.

WHERE DOES THIS LEAVE US? Well, Dragon Azteca Jr. and Black Lotus are both probably pissed off at Pentagon Dark. And they have unfinished business with each other.

Matanza Cueto is the brother of Lucha Underground owner Dario Cueto and also the reincarnation of some horrible unstoppable dark god because their father committed an unspeakable sacrifice. Matanza murdered their abusive mother by smashing her head in with the red bull statue that Dario now keeps in his office. That was when Dario discovered how much he loves violence. Matanza is kept in a cage in the basement of the Temple when not beating people up in the ring.

Pentagon Dark likes breaking arms for his Master, who last season was revealed to be color commentator Vampiro when Vamp is off his meds. Earlier in the season, Pentagon Jr. faced Matanza before he was ready to do so, and it ended with Matanza breaking Pentagon's back. Vampiro rehabilitated Pentagon, mostly by pouring hot wax on him, yelling at him, and hitting him with a barbed-wire baseball bat.

After snapping some arms on Dragon Azteca and Black Lotus, Pentagon gave a big speech that basically boiled down to "I'm reborn as Pentagon Dark, and I'm not fuckin around anymore." Matanza had previously been unstoppable, but Pentagon Dark dominated Matanza for most of this match. However, things went bad when Vampiro attempted to sneak the barbed-wire baseball bat into the ring. Dario destracted Pentagon, and Matanza got the bat and smashed Pentagon and then finished him off.

WHERE DOES THIS LEAVE US? Matanza is still undefeated since his appearance and still the champ. Unless he loses the belt, Sexy Star will have to go through him if she wants to cash in the Gift of the Gods. Pentagon also likely still has unfinished business with Matanza, given how dominant he was in the match and the way he lost.

Oh, and Pentagon would appear again later in the show. But we'll get to that.

Taya defeated Ivelisse

Taya aka "Weraloca" aka "the Perfect Woman" is a member of Johnny Mundo's Worldwide Underground. Ivelisse was formerly one of the Trios Champs with Angelico and Son of Havoc, and is a badass. The two of them have been getting up in each others' faces for awhile, and decided to finally have it out to determine who is the Baddest B...ahem..Woman, in the building. (Since Jack Evans is now the undisputed Baddest Bitch in the Building).

Ivelisse had the match all but won when Catrina (who also has a big history of bad blood with Ivelisse) teleported into the ring, somehow replacing the ref, hit Ivelisse with her finisher, and then teleported out so the ref could reappear and count the win for Taya.

WHERE DOES THIS LEAVE US? Ivelisse likely wants to kill Catrina now, and the feeling is still probably mutual. And whoever Catrina hates, Mil Muertes also hates.

Rey Mysterio Jr. defeated Prince Puma

Prince Puma (aka Ricochet when he's wrestling maskless in other promotions) was the first Lucha Underground Champion and has been sort of the superface hero of the promotion for awhile. Rey Mysterio, at least in storyline, was the one who first discovered him on the streets. Rey and Puma and Dragon Azteca Jr. were Trios Champions for a bit, but lost to the Worldwide Underground after they all got kicked in the balls like eight times. A little seed of strife grew between Puma and Rey during the rematch with Worldwide Underground, when Rey was upset at Puma losing his temper after Puma responded to a renewed amount of Worldwide Underground dick-kicking with a dick-kick of his own, getting them disqualified.

After this, Puma challenged Rey to a dream match, for Puma to find out whether he was the best in the world, and for Rey to see if he was still the king.

They had a very good match together, which many say was Rey's best match in a very long time, and Rey squeaked out a hard victory. Afterwards, the two had a huge show of respect for each other, and Rey, despite being the winner, left the ring, saying that Puma should stay since these were his people, and leading the crowd in a chant of "323" (the Boyle Heights area code).

WHERE DOES THIS LEAVE US? Not with any real storyline implications for Season Three, other than that Puma and Rey are probably cool with each other again.

AFTER THE MATCH: Pentagon Dark Attacked Vampiro

While Vampiro and Matt Striker were signing off, Pentagon came from out of the crowd, hit Vampiro with a baseball bat, superkicked Striker, dragged Vamp into the ring and cut him open with the barbed wire. Pentagon then announced that he was the New Master, and while licking Vampiro's blood from his hands, said that blood is like food to him.

WHERE DOES THIS LEAVE US? Well, it seems like Vampiro and Pentagon Dark are no longer aligned. Will Vampiro seek revenge? Will he find a new student?

AFTER THE SHOW: Dario Cueto Was Arrested

So, last week, Dario Cueto murdered gang member/confidential police informant Mister Cisco, who has been working with undercover cops Joey Ryan and Cortez Castro, by smashing his head in after discovering that Cisco was wearing a wire. He then invited the police to come get him, and made a call to someone else saying "it's time." The someone else was likely Councilman Delgado (played by Lorenzo Lamas), who is working for someone that is "more powerful than the Mayor," a not-yet-seen cigar-smoking man in a limo that is planning his ascension and was intending to visit the Temple soon.

After Ultima Lucha Dos, the police came and arrested Dario. As they were driving away with him, Dario was smiling.

WHERE DOES THIS LEAVE US? Well, presumably Dario needs to get out of jail, either through his own means or via Councilman Delgado. If Dario finds out that Joey Ryan and Cortez Castro are cops, there's going to be hell to pay.

I hope Black Lotus has been feeding Matanza and changing his litter box.

StarkRavingMad fucked around with this message at Sep 6, 2016 around 03:34

It's on go90 for Verizon Wireless customers if you search it. But only S2E1-12, which by coincidence is the same episode I stopped at when I had to move. Great.

so iTunes is the only other (legal) way to watch huh? 40 bucks or whatever is pretty god drat steep.

For back episodes, right now yeah, iTunes is it. For new episodes, if you're in the US, fubo works very well for nine bucks a month. But then again, 9 bucks x 10 months is actually more expensive than buying the iTunes season pass if Lucha Underground is all you watch on El Rey.

Since it's acknowledged that Puma is Ricochet, is it worth also mentioning who some of the other wrestlers are, like that Matanza is LORD ZANDIG and that Mariposa is ALSO LORD ZANDIG?

That's all fine by me. The show is clearly a fictional thing, even more so than other wrestling promotions, feel free to talk about who everyone is. I mean, unless they haven't appeared at all, like if you found out that Delgado's master who has not yet debuted is LORD ZANDIG.

I don't know if he's actually spoken about it but this is mainly due to the incident with Octagon ambushing him with armed security in public and ripping off his mask, as he was Octagon Jr in AAA at the time and Octagon didn't like that. Since LU has ties with AAA, Flamita basically said gently caress it and went back to Dragon Gate. Can't say I blame him, but it's a shame because he could've become a much bigger name stateside. Had the timing been different I wonder if the CWC would've taken a look at him. He's still very young though, so he's got time.

It doesn't really affect the show itself, but I got the vibe that Mundo and Taya are a legit couple now. She was handling all his merch on BOLA weekend despite not being booked as his valet or anything, and Meltzer mentioned in one of the recent Observers that he isn't with Melina anymore.

It doesn't really affect the show itself, but I got the vibe that Mundo and Taya are a legit couple now. She was handling all his merch on BOLA weekend despite not being booked as his valet or anything, and Meltzer mentioned in one of the recent Observers that he isn't with Melina anymore.

The benefit of accidental taping spoilers is that since they're all filmed at once you usually have no idea when they happen in the season, so it's easy to forget.

Really, the reason the results shouldn't be considered canon for title reigns is because they literally aren't finished putting together the show's plot until the episode airs, but good luck convincing wrestlepage editors of anything outside their bubble.

It doesn't really affect the show itself, but I got the vibe that Mundo and Taya are a legit couple now. She was handling all his merch on BOLA weekend despite not being booked as his valet or anything, and Meltzer mentioned in one of the recent Observers that he isn't with Melina anymore.

On social media stuff they're always together outside of work and she moved to LA, so it seems likely, even if they are kind of keeping it on the down low.

I was lucky enough to only get hit with the big spoiler and the not-as-big spoiler that follows. Fortunately, I'm more interested in how it gets there than annoyed.

When I picked up the season pass on iTunes, it came with a paragraph description of the season. Minor spoilers: It begins with Dario being released and the big plot is that one hero will have to go down a dark path while others will have to make sacrifices to save the world.

The season pass automatically adds the episode the day of/day after it airs, right? Thinking of getting it since I found out it airs on the TeleLatino Network here in Canada on the Sunday after it airs on El Rey. I want to support the show with actual numbers, but I'm also not that patient.

The season pass automatically adds the episode the day of/day after it airs, right? Thinking of getting it since I found out it airs on the TeleLatino Network here in Canada on the Sunday after it airs on El Rey. I want to support the show with actual numbers, but I'm also not that patient.

It's typically the morning after, yeah. Or sometime during the night. Last season I usually had the notification that the next episode was up when I woke up (Pacific time).